Fiber cleaner



' P 6, 1950 J. I. KOTTER ET AL FIBER CLEANER Filed Aug. 22. 1958INVENTORS JAMES I. KOTTER MAYER MAYER, JR

Unite States FIBER CLEANER James I. Kotter, Metairie, and Mayer Mayer,Jr., New Orleans, La., assignors to United States of America asrepresented by the Secretary of Agriculture A non-exclusive,irrevocable, royalty-free license in the invention herein described,throughout the world for all purposes of the United States Government,with the power to grant sublicenses for such purposes, is hereby grantedto the Government of the United States of America.

This invention relates to a fiber cleaner especially adapted for removalof trash, such as sticks, etc., from ginned cotton fibers, and has amongits objects the provision in such a cleaner of a simple and eflicientcombing cylinder which operates to open with little fiber damage bunchesof fibers to permit more readily ejection of the trash.

'For a description of the cleaner in detail, reference is made to theaccompanying one figure drawings showing a schematic longitudinalsection through the essential portion of the cleaner.

First and second processing cylinders and 11 correspond in structure andfunction to two of the processing cylinders, such as 18 and 19, Fig. 1of Patent No. 2,365,793.

Rotatable doffer cylinder 13 enclosed in housing 14 and rotatable doifercylinder 15 enclosed in housing 16 each corresponds to cylinder 15 andhousing 25 of Patent No. 2,848,754. Any desired number of additionaldoffer cylinders and associated parts may be provided.

Means for separating trash from the fibers is provided in form ofconduit 20 and conduit 21 each correspond to the similar part 15 ofcopending application Serial No. 756,049, filed August 9, 1958, nowPatent No. 2,934,793.

The improvement in the present application relates to rotatable combingcylinder 25. This cylinder is provided with a shaft 26 rotatably mountedin suitably supported end bearings (not shown) and rotated in thedirection indicated by the arrow by any desired power means. A core 27is fixed to the shaft and is clothed with flexible projections 30 offiber or wire. Cylinder is housed in combing cylinder housing 31.

As illustrated in the drawing, cylinders 10 and 11, having forwardlyinclined peripheral saw teeth 35 and 36, are mounted parallel andadjacent and are rotated such that the teeth adjacent on the cylindersmove in opposite directions past each other. Combining cylinder 25 ismounted parallel to processing cylinders 10 and 11 so that the outerends of the flexible projections 38 run closely adjacent to the teeth onboth of the processing cylinders moving in opposite directions pastthem.

In operation, fibers bearing trash are carried by the teeth onprocessing cylinder llil past combing cylinder 25. At this point thefibers are combed by the flexible projections 30 and are opened, thus torender trash removal more eflicient in the subsequent passage of thefibers past the dofier cylinder 13 and through the fibertrash separatingconduit 20. Some fibers are picked up by the projections 30. Cylinder 25is rotating at such a speed as to cause a self-dofl'ing by centrifugalaction of these fibers onto the teeth 36 of cylinder 11. Teeth 36 thencarry the fibers forward to the point where the teeth 36 pass the teeth35 of cylinder 10 where they are further combed and are mainly doffedfrom teeth 36 and redeposited onto teeth 35. Any fibers not doffed arecarried forward to the next higher similar unit of the cleaner.

Although the dimensions may be varied, a satisfactory operation isobtained with cylinders 10 and 11 of diameter 12 inches, running at 400rpm. and cylinder 25 of overall diameter 3 in., running at from 2800 to3800 rpm. It is necessary merely that cylinder 25 be run at a speed highenough to cause the self-dotting of fibers from it onto teeth 36.

We claim:

A fiber cleaner comprising a first rotatable processing cylinder havingforwardly inclined peripheral teeth, a second rotatable processingcylinder having forwardly inclined peripheral teeth mounted parallel andadjacent to the first processing cylinder, the cylinders rotating suchthat the teeth adjacent on the cylinders move in opposite directionspast each other, and a rotatable combing cylinder clothed with flexibleprojections mounted parallel to the processing cylinders and rotatedsuch that the outer ends of the flexible projections run closelyadjacent the teeth on both of the processing cylinders, moving inopposite directions past the processing cylinder teeth, the speed of thecylinders being such that fibers bearing trash are carried by the firstprocessing cylinder past the combing cylinder and are combed and opened,some fibers which are picked up by the flexible projections on thecombing cylinder being doifed by centrifugal action onto the teeth ofthe second processing cylinder, and means for separating trash from thecombed and opened fibers.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS988,856 Booth Apr. 4, 1911 1,160,367 Bates Nov. 16, 1915 1,751,306Cumpston Mar. 18, 1930

